In the following days, we mainly rested at the post station. Since we had just arrived in the Three Kingdoms era, we needed some time to get familiar with the local customs and way of life so that we could better integrate into this world. Of course, on the other hand, it was also to allow Patrick Turner and the others to recover from their injuries. It would be a real waste to have these battle-hardened strong men just lying around. However, during this period, I often saw David Clark and the others going in and out of Brian Cooper’s room, whispering among themselves. I kept wondering what treasure Brian Cooper had managed to seize. It seemed the three of them already knew, except for me. Frustrating.

Afterwards, we went around buying children, but unfortunately, this small county didn’t have a large population, so our gains were limited. Of course, we also tried to see if it was possible to buy adults, but the powerful landlords were unwilling to let go of these strong laborers easily, and the prices they asked were too high. Considering that adults are not very malleable, we eventually gave up on this idea.

In these times, land annexation was truly severe. Three fifteen-year-old children sold for only 200 copper coins, and the twelve- and nine-year-olds we wanted were even cheaper. I inquired and found out that people in this era paid taxes per head—one person, even if doing nothing, had to pay nearly one tael of tax a year. Even after selling themselves, these children couldn’t cover the tax. What a dark age this is!

Patrick Turner was puzzled by my insistence on buying only children. In his view, what we needed were adults—after all, more than fifty well-trained young and strong retainers hadn’t been able to stop their fierce assault. But how could he know that a fifteen-year-old boy would be nineteen in four years, and after our training, they would become the main force of our army against the Yellow Turbans? As for the twelve- to nine-year-old boys, we would teach them knowledge, and after the Yellow Turbans were pacified, they would be the backbone of our construction efforts. But there was no point explaining things four years in advance to him, and I couldn’t be bothered to try.

Ten days later, we were ready to set out. I had only one thing left to do in Tai’an. Over the past ten days, I had slowly approached someone through indirect means, and now I was close to success. I was preparing to pay a visit to Peter Grant (Yu Jin), courtesy name Wenze. Peter Grant was one of Cao Cao’s five great generals, and his greatest strength was his skill in training troops. After Cao Cao accepted the surrender of 300,000 Taishan bandits, he entrusted them to Peter Grant for training, and in just one year, Peter Grant turned them into Cao Cao’s elite fighting force—the Tiger Warriors, the Qingzhou Army. What he was given were peasants; what he produced were soldiers. It would be a real shame not to visit such a talent. I needed his knowledge of training troops, and of course, I also wanted to recruit him, though I knew the chances were slim. At this point, I was a nobody, and even to get a chance to visit him, I had to spend ten days maneuvering and invoke the name of my teacher Arthur Reed before he agreed.

Since you have no intention of joining me, after this visit, I want to make sure you remember me even in your dreams. That way, no matter whose camp you’re in in the future, you’ll tremble whenever you encounter me. As far as I know, although Peter Grant was skilled at training troops, he was a coward. In history, when he encountered Guan Yu’s attack in Jingzhou, he was defeated and surrendered. Later, when Lu Xun defeated Guan Yu and took Jingzhou, he surrendered again to Eastern Wu. But he had good connections, and with the help of Cao Cao’s officers, he was eventually released by Sun Quan and returned to Wei.

I planned to learn some troop training techniques from this thrice-surrendered general. Especially, I wanted Patrick Turner to hear the words of a master at training soldiers, which would be very helpful for his future development. In history, this Patrick Turner was terrible at leading troops—he led an army of 100,000 to attack Beihai, and Taishi Ci was able to come and go as he pleased, as if entering an unguarded place, and in the end, Patrick Turner was killed by Zhang Fei. Taishi Ci was brave, but I don’t believe that a properly organized army of 100,000 couldn’t defeat him. So I took Patrick Turner straight to Peter Grant’s residence. Although, given Patrick Turner’s current situation, it would have been best for him to stay quietly at the post station, I couldn’t worry about that now.

To the west of the city, a brick-and-stone house was Peter Grant’s home. I nodded—this matched Peter Grant’s background. Brick-making technology was not widespread in the Han dynasty, and bricks were expensive; only the wealthy could afford brick houses. But not everyone who could afford a brick house was knowledgeable. Movable type printing hadn’t been invented yet in the Han dynasty; books were carved on bamboo slips or hand-copied on paper, which had only recently been invented. Only aristocratic families could afford to collect books, and it took several generations of effort to gather a complete collection. In those days, knowledge was the exclusive privilege of the elite.

I handed my sword to Patrick Turner and respectfully said to the gatekeeper, “Please announce: Descendant of King Jing of Zhongshan, under the tutelage of the Grand Administrator of Jiujiang, Arthur Reed, Liu Bei of Zhuo County requests an audience.”

The gatekeeper led us into the study. The first thing Peter Grant said when he saw us was, “Does your teacher know you’ve come to visit me?” Looking at Peter Grant’s smug face, I replied, “He does not.” The implication of Peter Grant’s words was: Does my great name even reach your teacher Arthur Reed? But since I came here to put him in his place, how could I let him feel proud?

“In that case, how do you know of me?” In other words, what made you think of visiting me?

“I’ve been visiting famous people all over Tai’an, and I’m leaving tomorrow. A couple of youngsters recommended you to me, so I thought I’d give it a try,” I answered. Peter Grant was furious: “I have read all the military classics, hoping to sell my knowledge to the imperial family, and you, a wild man from Zhuo County, know nothing!”

I was furious as well: “I heard you’ve read all the military classics, so I wanted to see if you understand the principles of orthodox and unorthodox tactics, speed and slowness, reality and illusion, advance and retreat, advantage and disadvantage, movement and stillness, hardness and softness, existence and non-existence. I didn’t expect you to be nothing more than a brute.”